Catalyst – A Conference Like No Other

October 6, 2009 in Church Related with 2 Comments

Tomorrow, I’ll be driving down to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. This will be my third year in a row that I have atttended. We’re taking a group of 6 people from Cornerstone, so I’m excited for our team as well. Catalyst is not your typical conference. From the time you enter the parking lot, everything is about creating an experience you won’t forget. The teaching is excellent, the activities are over the top, and the worship is passionate. I love that the conference is focused on developing and building young leaders.

I’ll be hanging out with a group of young pastors during the conference. We have been meeting with a mentor and friend who has been pouring into our lives and leadership over the past year. It will be the first time to the conference for all of them, so I’m sure we will have a great time.

Here are the main stage speakers
Andy Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, Louie Giglio, Malcolm Gladwell, Tony Dungy, Matt Chandler, Rob Bell, Priscilla Shirer, Dave Ramsey, Jessica Jackley, Shane Hipps, Josh Hamilton, Reggie Joiner, Margaret Feinburg, and Francis Chan

WOW, from athletes to business people to incredible pastors and church leaders, Catalyst is truly an experience. If you haven’t been before, then prepare to be amazed. If you can’t make it, you will want to check out the Catalyst Backstage website for info and videos about the conference. I’ll be posting updates from my twitter account as well.

Catalyst 2009 Preview from Catalyst on Vimeo.

Crashing Jericho

October 6, 2009 in Book and Music Reviews with 1 Comment

Over the past 13 years in ministry, I’ve heard a lot of young bands.  In the past six months, I’ve had the opportunity to hear this new band twice and I really like their music. I have a lot of blog readers in the southeast, so I wanted to let everyone know about this band from Greenville, South Carolina. I think their music is a blend of Creed, Daughtry, Todd Agnew, and Decemberadio, with a little vintage Jeremy Camp thrown in as well. They guys put on a great concert and I love their testimony and message. Check out their main website, their myspace page (with music), and their facebook page for more info.

http://www.crashingjericho.com/Home.html

Crashing Jericho Christian Rock Band Music Booking CD

A Once in a Lifetime Concert

October 3, 2009 in Crazy Stuff with 1 Comment

360-tour

Last week, I noticed that one of my friends on facebook had a couple of extra tickets to the U2 concert in Charlottesville.  It worked out for Jennifer and I to go, so we decided to go on a big date.  The tickets were general admission for the field and were sold during the presale for members of the fan club.  In other words, the tickets were great and inexpensive.   If you’re not familiar with the 360 tour, I’ll share a little about the stage.  You can see a picture above, but it is hard to comprehend how large and incredible it really is.  The 40 million dollar stage is 164 feet tall and takes over 100 tractor and trailers to transport. Simply amazing. You can find more info about the concert and stage from wikipedia.

The round high-tech stage was surrounded by an outer circular walkway that connected by an overhead moving bridge.  Jennifer and I were able to get in the inner ring, and we were constantly surrounded by the band as they moved around the stage.  Bono was literally inches away from us as he walked across the bridge.  The Edge was perfect as always and we were close enough to see all the guitar magic.  They played a good mix of old and new music and they were able to really engage the crowd.  U2 puts on an incredible show, and Muse was a great opener as well.  As a technology junkie, I was amazed at the stage and video and production of it all.  My only big regret was that I didn’t take a better camera. The tickets said no cameras allowed except cell phones, but they didn’t check for them and it seemed like everyone brought nice cameras in.  We were on our feet for almost 6 straight hours and we had to walk a mile and a half each way, but it was worth it.

The best part — I was able to enjoy the entire experience with Jennifer.  Simply Awesome.  Here are a few pictures from my phone for you to enjoy.

Keeping Your Computer Secure

September 30, 2009 in Technology with 0 Comments

MicrosoftSecurity

If you have multiple computers running Microsoft Windows to keep secure and virus-free at home or at church, you know how much of a pain it can be. Churches can get in a tough spot, because some of the “free” programs like AVG anti-virus are not free for non-profits and churches. The cost of keeping multiple computers current on virus subscriptions can be high with both Norton and McAfee. Both have good products, but they can also slow your computer down significantly. I wanted to let you know about a new free option that seems to work well.

Microsoft has released the free Security Essentials program to provide both spyware and virus protection. It is a small program that doesn’t take a lot of your system resources. It is not fancy, but it seems to work well.  And did I mention it’s free :-)

You can download it at Microsoft’s Security website. Here is some info about it from CNet’s review

Microsoft Security Essentials is a lightweight security app that people might turn to for a number of key reasons. It’s easy on the system resources, it’s easy to figure out how to use, and it comes pre-configured. It only works on legally licensed Microsoft computers, which is understandable but potentially leaves a large segment of the unprotected population still unprotected. You can’t opt out of contributing to SpyNet, which isn’t understandable at all. Overall, it’s recommended for those who want something to set and ignore, but users who want more robust configuration choices or don’t want to contribute to the cloud should look elsewhere.

As with any virus program, you still have to be careful installing programs. Don’t trust pop-ups on your screen while you’re browsing the internet. Most are links to malware programs that will only cause problems. If you are on a mac, you don’t have to worry about all of this at the present.  But there will come a day when more viruses and spyware writers will start attacking Apple as well, so don’t get careless. It is also a good idea to run some type of filtering on your internet access as an added layer of protection. I’ve written before about the free OpenDNS service here on the blog, and I continue to use it at home and at church with great results.

Why We Chose a Youth Curriculum

September 29, 2009 in Youth Ministry with 2 Comments

live

I’m not a huge fan of curriculum for youth.  I’ve seen far too many lessons that were long and culturally irrelevant, and most of the time they didn’t even make sense. If I see another youth lesson where they ask people to dress up in Biblical costumes I think I will drop kick the writer into the 21st century!  For the most part, over the last thirteen years of working with youth, I have written my own lessons.  I like getting ideas from others, but I couldn’t find the right mix of Biblical teaching and conversational questions that fit my teaching style.  With our recent changes to our youth ministry at Cornerstone, I knew I needed to come up with a plan for equipping and preparing our different youth leaders.

We have made the change from one large youth meeting each week to multiple smaller groups meeting at the same time.  We all meet together for announcements and some activities, but then we split up into different age groups.  I did want all the groups studying the same thing each week, so I started looking at several different options.  I really liked the content and messages from the XP3 curriculum by the reThink group, but it is geared for one teacher to teach a large group and then break up into smaller discussion groups.  We have tried that before and it is tough to teach a lesson that connects with a large group of students ranging from 6th to 12th grades. The lessons were also very long.  I looked at some others that I won’t mention here that seemed like they came straight out of 1980, and then I finally found what we we’re looking for. Simply Youth Ministry just recently released a curriculum for small groups called the Live Curriculum.  I talked with another youth pastor who was using it, and we made up our mind to jump in.  So far it’s been great.

The lessons are easy to customize and share.  It is online based, so I can login, make any specific changes that I feel are necessary, and then share with the rest of our leaders.  They can then customize the lessons for their group and teaching style, and print out the lessons and student sheets, all from their homes.  The lessons are intended to create discussion, and there are even text message questions and parent emails you can send during the week.  You can also choose the order in which you teach the lessons.  The cost sounds a little high ($499), but you are buying into a four-year plan so it really becomes cheaper than all the other options that I have seen.  I’m not easily impressed, but I think this will really help our youth ministry and save some valuable time for our leaders.

When choosing a curriculum, don’t choose something because everyone else is using it.  You have to evaluate your ministry and style, and then find something that will be a good fit.  In many cases, you may have to write your own, but don’t rule out looking at all curriculum.

Learning to Lead

September 29, 2009 in Leadership with 1 Comment

andystanleyIf you are a leader, then let me share with you a great source of free leadership lessons.   Andy Stanley’s Leadership Podcast is great for both those in the business world and in the church world.  Each month a new 20 to 30 minute lesson is posted and every single one of them has been exceptional.  Click here to subscribe to this podcast in iTunes.

If you’re not familiar with podcasts, let me share a little instruction.  You don’t have to even have an iPod, but you will need to have iTunes installed on your computer.  If the links in this post don’t work, it probably means that you don’t have iTunes installed.  It is a great free program for managing your music, and there are thousands of great Christian podcasts that you can subscribe to for free. While you’re there, you’ll want to check out our sermon podcast for Cornerstone as well.

Marriage Sermon Resources

September 28, 2009 in Church Related with 0 Comments

At Cornerstone this week, we continued our New and Improved Series by looking at Ephesians 5.   If we want to have a new & improved marriage, then we have to be willing to do whatever it takes.   I shared about understanding our commitment, about fighting for our marriages, and about protecting our marriages from sin.   It was a tough sermon to preach, and I could tell it made many people uncomfortable, but it was a message that we all needed to hear.  It is impossible to share everything you need to know about marriage in a single sermon, so I wanted to give you a few links to other sermons that helped me prepare for this past week.  I encourage you to check out these sermons, and I pray that you will have the courage to do whatever it takes to improve your marriage.

Sermon Links

  • Cornerstone did a series on building healthy home a couple of years ago.  Check out the love and respect messages that I shared for the husbands and wives.
  • It’s Just Sex sermon by Perry Noble – Great for singles and married couples.  Perry Noble preaches a powerful message about sexual purity.
  • I Want a New Marriage series by Perry Noble – This is a 4 week series about what it takes to have a successful marriage.
  • How to Commit Adultery sermon by Craig Groeschel – Craig shares a message on how to prevent adultery from happening in your marriage
  • For those of you who have gone through a divorce, let me recommend a great sermon on Divorce by Greg Surratt of Seacoast Church. Check out part 16 of their series on Ephesians here
  • And finally, check out the series from Lifechurch.tv called Going All The Way, Preparing for a Marriage that Goes the Distance.  It covers everything from dating to marriage and is great for teens, singles, and married couples.  I have used it with our youth, and I use the book that came out of this series in my pre-marriage counseling.

Update: One last thing, I did mention a book that several have asked about. Check out the The Love Dare based on the Fireproof movie. It’s a great way to get your marriage back on track.

The Principle of the Path

September 22, 2009 in Book and Music Reviews with 0 Comments

I shared about our walk with Christ this past weekend at Cornerstone.  How our life is full of small steps that determine our direction. I also mentioned Andy Stanley’s new book, The Principle of the Path.   He makes the statement that our direction, not our intentions, determines our destination.

I was in New York City several years ago for a wedding.  My wife and I managed to get around by using shuttle services and the train system.  We were up in Long Island for the wedding and arranged for an airport shuttle van to get us back in time for our flight home. When the driver arrived, he asked me to sit up front with him. I had trouble understanding his Jamaican accent, and he struggled to understand my hillbilly accent, but he finally got across that he needed some help. He wanted me to be his navigator and tell him how to get from where we were to our next stop to pick up the other passengers on the shuttle ride. He handed me a map and a list of five addresses and asked me where to turn next. I had this sinking feeling that it was going to be a long afternoon. I realized very quickly that a map is useless if you don’t know where you are and if you don’t know where you are going.

The same principle is true in our walk with Christ. I want to urge you to think about where and where you need to be in your spiritual life. Listen to this short clip from Andy Stanley about this principle of the path.

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